Saturday, July 13, 2013

A few items of interest

Back from a short vacation and spent the last two days moving me to extended stay and packing to move the stuff in our Des Plaines condo to Madison next Wednesday. We have a contract on it, so… Exhausting, as one trip up and down stairs requires a ten minute lay day to get my breath back, but I found a few items. ~Bob

Excerpt: So it seems the North Korean paper tiger is dangerous after all. Just ask Kenneth Bae and the U.S. Navy. Bae, an American citizen and tour operator, was arrested for subverting the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and got 15 years of hard labor. Hostages are usually released after bribes and apologies, but this time Pyongyang says the United States is wrong to think Bae is just a bargaining chip, stating: “The DPRK has no plan to invite anyone of the U.S. as regards Kenneth Bae’s case.” Chet Nagle is a graduate of the Naval Academy, a former CIA agent, a member of the Committee on the Present Danger, a former Defense Department official and the author of the excellent novels The Iran Covenant and The Woolsorter’s Plague.

Excerpt: Minutes after publishing 'A Public Letter to the Commandant of the Marine Corps' on Monday, 24 June 2013, emails started to flood in - from Marines, all generations and ranks, and friends of Marines. Nearly all strangers to me, nary a single dissenter.

Excerpt: A total of 650,000 civilian employees are now being furloughed at U.S. military bases in response to sequester cuts -- but the Department of Defense is still spending millions to protect fuzzy critters. Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Washingtonstate just received a $3.5 million department grant to purchase land around the base in an effort to protect the Mazama pocket gopher, a species that has not even been listed as endangered or threatened. The expense is not sitting well with furloughed workers.

Excerpt: Janet Napolitano is resigning as head of the Homeland Security Department and seeking a post as president of the University of California, the long-time Obama confidant announced Friday. (This doesn't really matter. Obama will simply nominate someone just as liberal, and just as incompetent as Napolitano. And the liberal, incompetent democrats in the senate, along with John McCain, et al, will confirm that someone. Grandmas, toddlers, and disabled veterans will still be strip searched in airports, undocumented democrats will continue scampering across our open southern border, and patriotic Americans will continue to be labeled as potential terrorists – LLW)

Excerpt: At least one lawmaker will not miss outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Shortly following the announcement that Napolitano will be stepping down in September, Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions issued a strong rebuke of her tenure at DHS. “Secretary Napolitano’s tenure at the Department of Homeland Security was defined by a consistent disrespect for the rule of law,” Sessions said in a statement. (Entire regime’s theme: FBI, DOJ, NSA, DOD, IRS, DOE, EPA, DOL, DHS, HHS, POTUS, VPOTUS, Reid, Pelosi, Clinton…What’s it matter anyway? Going for 2016…Barb)

Excerpt: The Texas economy has been a remarkable success story in recent years. Compared with other states, the recession largely bypassed it, say John C. Goodman, president and CEO of the NationalCenter for Policy Analysis, and Travis H. Brown, author of How Money Walks. Between 2001 and 2011, while many other states were hemorrhaging jobs, Texas increased private-sector employment by 732,800. These aren't low-paying jobs -- the average wage in Texas is in the middle of the pack nationwide; and since the beginning of the recession, wage growth in Texas has been the sixth-fastest in the nation.

The anti-Morsi, anti-Muslim Brotherhood, and therefore anti-Obama demonstrations in Egypt are the biggest in human history. It’s quite something, an historic event. Whatever the outcome, we should pay attention. What does it signify? Are we now in a new world? Has there been a paradigm shift? Does it portend similar huge protests elsewhere, even here in the USA? (Ledeen may have overstated his case, but this is well worth reading. Ron P.)

Excerpt: Texas police have confiscated numerous jars of feces and urine, paint, tampons, maxi-pads and even bricks that pro-abortion activists had planned to throw at pro-life lawmakers who are preparing to pass a late-term abortion ban in the state, according to reports.

Excerpt: A Louisiana sheriff, whose department sponsors a national chapter of a youth military organization, is receiving bipartisan state and congressional support in his fight against the Department of Justice after it denied funding because the program’s oath placed “special emphasis on the love of God and fidelity to our country.” The group, Young Marines, describes itself as a private service program for boys and girls. Its national website says members should attend church and pledge not to dishonor God. The Justice Department, however, took exception to that during a recent audit of a chapter run by the Bossier Parrish Sheriff’s Office.

Excerpt: At least 38 people have been killed in a bomb attack in a cafe in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk, officials say. The blast happened shortly after 22:00 local time (19:00 GMT). More than 26 people were wounded. Cafe customers were reportedly marking the end of the day's fast for Ramadan. (Happy Ramadan from the Religion of Peace. ~Bob)

Teachers 'denied schoolboy, 10, water on the hottest day of the year to avoid upsetting Muslim pupils during Ramadan'

Excerpt: The National Transportation Safety Board issued a press release this evening acknowledging that a summer intern had erroneously confirmed four fake Asiana pilot names to Bay Area TV station KTVU. The release corroborates KTVU's claims that an NTSB official had confirmed that "Ho Lee Fuk" and "Sum Ting Wong," among others, had been manning Asiana flight 214, which crashed near San Francisco on Saturday.

Excerpt: One could just picture Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin and the Ayatollah Khamenei, sitting together in front of the tube. At the end of the spot, the Ayatollah turns to Putin and says, “Well, if Danny DeVito is opposed to nuclear proliferation, that’s good enough for me.”